Building the Vega Pram

on top of Vega 1118

2011-08-15T04:05:00.001-07:00

I think it looks ok on top of the Vega, and doggy aproves the size. Its important for him to be able to walk by, so that he can say hello to everyone passing.

Pram splashed

2011-06-21T14:12:00.000-07:00

So... I´m going to Denmark this summer to sail again, so the pram is now finished and tested. It works very well. Now we´ll have to see how it works with the mothership. I will update this autumn.

Its (almost) finished

2011-01-15T11:06:00.000-08:00

I need to make some oars and screw on the oarlocks. But besides that, its ready to be used.

¡Its green!

2010-11-26T08:48:00.000-08:00

Now the paint is curing. In a week or so I´ll turn it around and do some finishing work on the inside. besides that, I´ll make it some oars. More about that in the future.

painting inside

2010-11-19T04:51:00.001-08:00

I´ve painted the interior. Primer, and 4 layers of a good semigloss outdoor paint. Hopefully she´l be turned over and painted on the outside within a couple of days

Finishing seats and varnish

2010-11-05T09:15:00.001-07:00

I´ve painted the inside of the seats, glued them and varnished the brightwork 4 times. When its thorougly dry, I will start painting the inside of the pram

Front seat

2010-10-22T14:08:00.001-07:00

rear seat

2010-10-21T13:24:00.000-07:00

rubbing strake and bilge runners

2010-10-16T01:19:00.000-07:00

I have blued the keel/rubbing strake and the bilge runners. They are out of an African hardwood a sort of teak substitution. I cant remember the name. Its strong and only needs to be oiled. I have also filled and sealed the strakes with my ugly black epoxy/powder mix. The bottom needs to be sanded but besides that, its ready to be painted. I really felt like priming it so that I could see it without all the ugly black stuff but I prefer finishing the inside now and so finish the epoxying while the weather is relatively warm.
So now the pram is turned around again. It weighs 13 kg now (29 lbs ) Thats very good.

skeg

2010-10-09T09:38:00.000-07:00

Inwhale, quater knees and epoxy filleting

2010-10-07T14:04:00.001-07:00

The last couple of days, I´ve been gluing the inwhales, the quater knees and added epoxy filets to the transoms and centerframe. The pram is now a lot stiffer. No more wobbly feeling and it weighs 12 kg (26 pounds)
The epoxy that I use is very dark. Almost black. This because I use wood flour from my palm sander, and in my guitabuilding workshop I use a lot of ebony and roosewood, so its ends up being very dark. But since the pram is going to be painted and not varnished, its not a problem

gunwhale rubbing strake and turned over

2010-09-28T01:02:00.000-07:00

Turning the boat over is probably the most exiting moment of a build. I´m happy with the result so far. Lots of cleaning to be done....
At this moment it weighs 11 kg (24 ponds) and its very wobbly.

Last planks

2010-09-27T00:37:00.001-07:00

Its a good feeling. The pram looks good. I´m looking forward to turning it around

Third plank

2010-09-26T13:35:00.000-07:00

second plank

2010-09-23T13:14:00.001-07:00

Second plank is on.
From the bottom, you can see how I make the planks, do a dry test, how the planks are glued and finally how the pram looks now.

Garboard strakes.

2010-09-22T04:22:00.000-07:00

On the photos you can see from below:

bevelling the bottom plank in order to make a good gluejoint for the garboard strakes.

Making the gain with a rabbet plane.

Gluing the strakes.

And finally the way it looks now.

I forgot to take pictures of how I make the shape of the planks. This I will do with next pair of planks

2010-09-21T14:03:00.000-07:00

Gluing on the bottom plank was pretty straight forward.
From the drawing i took the stations, cut a bit oversize and corrected directly on the jig.
Now its starting to a be a little boat.

Building jig

2010-09-21T11:02:00.001-07:00

The building jig is pretty simple. 5 stations, where the 2 transoms and the center frame is going to be part of the boat. station, number 2 and 4 are momentary. The stringers are here in order to make the whole thing rigid. They´ll disappear when I start the planking.
I like building with a jig. If you make sure that the boat is lined up and square, then it´ll be so as well when finished.

Everything starts with a plan.

2010-09-21T10:34:00.000-07:00

In this blog, I will be building a small pram, which is to be used as a tender on my small sailyacht, "Yggdrasil" , a swedish built Albin Vega 27.

The pram is a home design made to the size which I find will be acceptable to store on the foredeck of my boat. The size will be 220 x 113cm ( 7´3" x 3´8")
In designing the pram, I´ve tried to make a round bilge pram with max initial stabilty. Thats what you need in order to tow well and at the same time be reasonably ok to enter from the mother ship.
The design is a flat bottom with 4 strakes a side, which I find is enough in order to make a good shape and look good at the same time.

She´s going to be built ultra light in outdoor (WBP) quality plywood using the clinker ply method. I was lucky to find some 5mm 5 layer plywood which is very light and well made. It doesnt chip and seems to be well glued. I´m going to use it for the bottom planks. For the side planks I´m going to be using 4mm 3 layer plywood. I´m not going to epoxy the hull and I´m not applying glassfiber. This in order to keep weight down. My hope is that the pram will be relatively easy to lift on board the mother ship by one person and that it´ll carry me and doggy and sometimes an extra person. My goal is a max weight of 19kg (40 pounds)

The pram is going to be painted because 1 layer of paint is the same amount of work as 4 - 5 layers of varnish. I might be varnishing the transoms and the seats. We´ll see.